The field of graphic art and the printing of various media for advertisements, presentations and the like, is well established and, in most instances, systematized. Overall, for most printing tasks, artwork is received by a printer in an appropriate format. The image or picture to be printed is color adjusted and edited as appropriate for the presentation of the material. The edited and color corrected image is scanned and saved onto a storage media, such as a CD Rom, or other storage media, including, hard disks and floppy disks. The files on the storage media are read by a computer which is coupled to a printing device. At the time of printing, the files are read by the computer, which instructs the printing device as to printing the image onto a print media.
Although the field of graphic art and print media are fairly well established and efficient for most printing tasks, problems arise as the desired size of the finished product increases in size. Indeed, the production of graphics for oversized print media, such as, billboards, poses problems associated with the design of appropriate printing equipment, storage of materials, and delivery time of the final product to the client.
Currently, at least two types of printing systems exist to produce graphics for oversized media; namely, a flat bed system and a drum system. In the flat bed system, the printing device comprises a flat bed and a print head, wherein the print head resides above the flat bed. A piece of material or substrate is secured onto the flat bed, wherein the material is sized to correspond to the size of the flat bed. The print head, which is a piezoelectric gun, is coupled to an arm that moves the print head across the width of the flat bed.
The printing device further comprises a processor, such as a computer, wherein the processor is in electronic communication with the print head. The computer reads the image from the storage device and instructs the print head in the printing of the media.
Although the flat bed system allows for the printing of larger media, the flat bed is limited in size. Indeed, in the instance of a billboard sign, the flat bed does not represent the true size of the final product. Rather, the image is printed in segments 2, wherein each segment of the image is printed onto a different piece of print material. The pieces of material are later seamed together to form the entire image, or printed substrate 4, such as, the billboard sign (FIG. 1).
To attach the printed billboard image to the billboard, the printed substrate requires coupling elements. In current systems, the coupling elements 6 are borders on the printed substrates. With reference to FIG. 1, borders 6 are formed by folding and attaching a separate segment of the print material along a portion of each of the sides of the substrate, wherein the ends of the borders are open such that a loop 8 is formed by the folded material. The loops 8 are designed to receive and support a rope, or other attachment means, which is threaded through the interior of the loop 8 such that a piece of the rope extends beyond each end of the loop. The exposed rope can be used to secure the printed substrate 4 to the billboard, wherein the rope in the loop holds the side of the printed substrate against the billboard. The addition of the borders increases the size of the printed substrate, increases the height, or thickness, of a portion of the print substrate, and increases the time before the printed billboard can be delivered.
In the drum system, a large drum is used to print the image. In current drum systems, the drum is approximately 20 feet wide and has a 60 foot circumference. Due to the large size of the drum head, the printing materials, which are stored on rolls, are very large and cumbersome. Further, currently used drum systems utilize proprietary equipment, which is not typically available for manufacturers. The unavailability of preexisting proprietary equipment is compounded by the expense of manufacturing, purchasing and developing equipment to use in the drum systems. As the drums are expensive to manufacture, purchase and develop, it is unlikely that the drums will be redesigned to accommodate newly entering businesses; thereby further minimizing availability of these systems.
Although the above described systems are used and allow the printing of oversized print media, these systems present certain problems. As stated above, the drum system is not typically used due to the size of material required for the drum and the expense of the drum equipment. Further, the unavailability of the preexisting systems to most manufacturers prohibit entry into the field unless the entrant desires to manufacture and develop another system.
Further, in all flat bed systems, delivery time for a printed billboard image is typically from two to five weeks. This is due, in part, to the fact that the images are printed in segments, wherein the segments are assembled into the billboard image subsequent to printing. Assembly of the printed segments is typically 2-½ hours. Thus, delivery of the printed billboard is affected by the assembly time which cannot currently be reduced. In most current systems, a maximum of 8-10 images can be printed per day. However, these 8-10 printed images require approximately 16-25 additional hours of labor for post printing assembly prior to the delivery of the billboard image to the customer.
In addition, the current systems are restrained by the required printing distance between the material and the print heads. For instance, with respect to the flat beds, as stated above, the print head used in the flat bed system is a piezoelectric gun, which prints most effectively at a predefined optimal distance from the print substrate. Indeed, due to instabilities in these systems, such as motion in the equipment during printing, or the existence of air turbulence created between the substrate and the print head, the print quality of the final product suffers. Thus, to effectively use the flat beds, the print substrate, or material, must be within a preset distance from the guns. Although it is possible to place the guns at a distance which is further than the preset optimal distance from the material, the quality of the printed image is compromised.
In addition, the substrate materials for the flat bed systems are typically delivered too large in size. Thus, the raw materials must be precut and re-rolled prior to use in the systems. This, of course, increases labor and time expense, and further potentially degrades the integrity of the material. Indeed, due to the necessity to cut and re-roll the raw materials, the materials are often wrinkled. At least one inherent problem with the flat bed systems is that the equipment does not ensure that the print substrates are taut and wrinkle free during the printing process. Thus, the printed billboard image often includes voids or distortions in the printed image due to the wrinkles or looseness of the substrate during printing.
As stated above, the addition of the borders increase the thickness or height of the print substrate. As such, the borders cannot be attached prior to printing for either system because the increased thickness would require an increase in the distance from which the guns would need to be fired. Further, as the borders increase the size of the print material, print material with a border would not fit on the currently available flat beds, unless the size of each segment having a border were reduced. This, of course, would increase the number of segments required for an image and thus, increase the amount of printing time required to print the image.
A need in the industry exists for a system that decreases the post production time for the printing of oversized images. A further need exists for a system that more effectively utilizes pre-production time such that the delivery time for the printing of oversized media is reduced. A still further need exists for a system that allows for an effective ‘real-time’ introduction of new products and services via advertising by oversized images.